Bad global cues pull Sensex below 13K

Mumbai, Sep 29 (UNI) Sustained heavy panic selling pressure by foreign institutional investors on the back of bad global cues drove the 30 scrip sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange that crashed down by over 690 points before a partial recovery end of the day, finishing with a loss of 506.43 points.

Similar sentiments prevailed at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also with Nifty drowning below 3900 points to end the day at 3850.05 points with a huge deficit of 135.20 points and losing 3.39 per cdent.

SENSEX failed to recover from the massive fall it had on Friday last and ended the day at 12,595.75 losing 3.87 per cent.

Both indices, however, resumed slight high at 13,109.96 for Sensex and for Nifty opened high at 3,990.20 points.

The Sensex and the Nifty touched new-2008 low of 12,402.84 and 3777.30 in today's session; breached earlier lows of 12,514 and 3790.2 respectively achieved on July 16, 2008. This was the third time that they have been tried to test those levels.

Brokers said that ''Both the indices got heavily battered today on the back of bad global cues though they have shown some recovery in late trade, as two European financial firms freed from credit crisis and US Congress is set to vote on a USD 700 billion bailout plan. Realty, banking, technology,power, telecom, capital goods, metal and auto stocks took huge beating on the bourses. Heavyweights have pulled the markets lower like ICICI Bank, L&T, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Satyam, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Reliance Communication and TCS.

Markets breadth was pathetic with a whopping 2479 scrips finishing in the red and 505 shares advancing.

Total turnover improved as compared to Friday's trade; it stood at Rs 73,600.11 crore. This includes Rs 13,109.53 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 55,905.70 crore from NSE F &O segment and balance Rs 4,584.88 crore from BSE Cash segment The slide of the Indian bourses followed the pattern set by the Asian markets whivh also tumbled. Hang Seng closed down by 4.29 pc, Nikkei eased by 1.26 pc, Straits Times came down 2.08 pc, Kospi dropped by 1.35 pc and Jakarta eased 0.74 pc.

However, The Sensex recorded the day's high and low at 13,113.53 and 12,402.84 points respectivelyf. The Nifty index also registed the day's high at 3,997.55 and a low at 3777.30 points.

A leading broker believes that the sentiment has been very badly affected. Currently, the FIIs want to get out of the market. ''A market where the participation across the board is so low that the cost has actually moved up quite high because of which even a small amount of selling is breaking prices for most of the stocks. People are tired of looking at the losses. So, they are clearly turning away from the market.'' MORE UNI AR VK NP1751